The Next Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Books About the Financial Crisis

Some time soon the market is going to peak, perhaps as early as this month, and then there is a terrible crash ahead. Which market? The next bubble, of course: Books about the financial crisis.

As the following graph shows, there has been an explosion in books published about the ongoing financial crisis. From just two books published per month back in June of 2008 we have spiked all the way to 20 financial crisis books per month, even touching 26 books per month briefly. (Note the S&P 500 over the same period is shown in red for comparison.)

But all of that is set to end. According to current publishing industry schedules, we will see a sharp increase in financial crisis books in December, but then declines through the first five months of 2010, taking as all the way down to only six books per month about the financial crisis. Six! Who can survive with only six?

And it gets worse. Unless something changes and a few more writers sign contracts — I’m looking at you John Carney — we could be under five financial crisis books a month by June of 2010. It is a horrifying thought.

Are there no more tick-tocks to write? Are there no Charlie-Rose-loving academics eager to explain for the umpteenth time (ex post) how all this happened? Can’t someone tell us again in intimate detail what happened in a Lehman or Bear boardroom (that they weren’t inside) as people there talked to others in a boardroom at the New York Fed (that they weren’t inside)? Isn’t there room for a book about the crash of Dubai in here somewhere?

C’mon writer-people. Staving off a looming financial crisis in books about the financial crisis depends on you.